Finally I can heave a sigh of relieve, for tonight at least. I've sat for 3 papers in these past two days with one more paper to go on Monday. It has not been the easiest of days to say the least. On Tuesday, I came down with stomache ache which I suspect the root cause of it to be my consumption of junk food. When I went home, I had high fever and felt so tired and dazed and incredibly sorry for myself. To top it off, I was suffering from cramps too. So I just went off to bed early to sleep it off.

On Wednesday, the fever came down and I was able to take my paper without any major discomfort. And for today's two papers as well. Though for the past two days, I have not been able to eat properly(as in my normal intake) because everytime I eat too much, I would have stomach discomfort again. It's kind of like a gnawing pain, and I would feel quite bloated as well. In retrospect, this is good as it can make me stop eating all the junk food. All the same, I wonder when I can start eating normal again. I miss provence.

I can't wait for Monday to come. Yet the thought of holidays without anything to do kind of makes me dread it. After all, lazing around too much would make me lethargic, and there are only so many books to read and so many places to go.. sigh..guess I am kind of in a morose mood. When can I stop letting people's mood affect me too...

Today, I suffered from two minor( but major to me) injuries. The first was when I was rushing out of the house in the morning, and somehow the sharp edge of the door made a deep and bloody and long gash on my finger, resulting in a stinging pain the whole day.

The second incident was me and stephen were at the coop going to buy the daily provisions( meaning snacks). As we were entering the coop, I was right behind him and somehow my mouth was unceremoniously banged by the door when he pulled it. It was so painful that I teared a little. It resulted in a swollen mouth which thankfully resided quite fast and a small bruise, no broken teeth thankfully. Poor Stephen looked so sorry and aplologetic that I didn't have the heart to be angry. Though it kind of disturbed my studying mood for the rest of the afternoon..hah

But the incident at the coop resulted in me seeing how much love and concern was showered on me. I just feel so blessed and loved. Somehow, it just took the pain away

Me thinks its time to go on a diet soon. I feel the flab coming and I really hate it. It doesn't help that I am going to the gym only once a week and my eating portion is still as masssive as ever. But this is the exam period and it just seems so natural to reach out to that snack or comfort food to make everything seem better. Here is a list of food I should be avoiding(but haven't been).

1. Synder's Pretezel pieces - Jalapeno or honey mustard and onion. I have been buying in almost everyday as a snack. They are delicious but unfortunately very calorific.

2. Japanese food. After the closure of the deck, they have made a reappearance at Eusoff Hall. I just love the kani-tamago set with lots of scrambled egg.

3. Chocolates- No day is complete without a serving of good quality chocolate. 'Nuff said.

4. Provence- This little bakery at Holland village would be the death of me and my figure as well as my wallet. I think they must have earned a neat little sum from me now since I patronize at least 3 times a week. My top 3 favourite. The raisin and walnut bread that is the softest and yummiest bread ever. The cream cheese bread with blueberry jam inside. And lastly the Ogura whip. Just look at the amount of whipped cream, its enough to send anyone salivating. Thats not all, there is red-bean paste in the bread as well. Everybite is so delighful and decadent









5. Bread with lavish amount of peanut butter. This is staple food for my breakfast as well as midnight snack when I am hungry. I kid myself that it is somewhat healthy because of the wholemeal bread and peanut butter is supposed to be healthy right?

6. Kopi C from Holland village food centre. A little stall right at the end at the corner. They serve the thickest and most aromatic coffee, nicer than Ya kun. But don't ever think that its healthy. Because I saw the amount of sugar, condensed milk as well as evaporated milk that went in. But I am lovin' it. It helps to keep me awake too.

7. Cedele - I am hooked on their carrot cake with that thick cream cheese frosting as well as their blueberry maple cake as well as their blueberry hazelnut cheesecake cake as well as their muffins. I can go on and on and on

8. Home-made milo - made super thick with extra serving of milo powder on top. Milo is good cos it gives me energy to mug through the night. Unfortunately these days I hit my bed when the clock strikes 12.

Thats about it I guess..sigh, damage is done already though..There is something seriously wron with me. There must be a worm in my stomach or something. I want to be thin, yet I love eating as well. I am already thinking of the list of places I absolutely must check out.

1. Marmalade pantry
2. Chocolate Factory
3. Canele

Heidi giving me the "oops I am sorry I know i was not supposed to be on this bed" look 

So here's part 2 of stephen's birthday surprise. I baked another cake for him, this time using baking soda instead of baking powder, and it yielded a nice, puffy chocolate cake as it should. However, IT BROKE AGAIN when I tried to take it out of the pan. As usual, I was too impatient. So I salvaged the cake with a vanilla frosting, using melted chocolate to pipe words over it, and decorated it with some strawberries and rainbow sprinkles. Aesthetically, the cake was displeasing to the sight. I felt the words and the frostings were ugly. Taste-wise, it was amazingly yummy. Its the first birthday cake I have ever attempted to make and decorate, it would definitely get better with practise.

I brough the cake to church on Sunday, and hid it in a perfume box that I had. After service, we went down to the kopitian at Suntec to celebrate and everyone else was in on the secret except Stephen who was in the dark. He asked me innocently what was in the bag I was carrying and I simply fobbed him off with some white lies..heh

Anyway, we took out the cake while he was off buying drinks and did he have the shock of his life when he came back. Heh. Anyway, everybody loved the cake, and most importantly the birthday boy. I loved the cake too, it was amazingly light and moist and yet chocolatey and soft...yumm. The recipe is definitely a keeper, but next time I will top it off with chocolate ganache instead of frosting which was too sweet.

Part 3 of the celebration was on Monday, I borrowed the car and drove him all the way to Buckaroo in Sembawang. I was so proud of myself for not getting lost cos its like foreign territory to me. Anyway, the food was great and as usual we over ordered. A side of cream of mushroom in bread bowl, deep fried mushrooms, onion rings, buffalo wings( level 2 of spiciness which was already very spicy) and a main course of beef. Everything was so yummy. I really love the ambience of the place, so laid-back and good for chilling out, replete with good food. There was even a complementary chocolate cake which unfortunately tasted quite dry, so we just dumped my cake into the bowl and ate it up. And both of us were stuffed full after that, though not as bad as the steam boat experience where I puked after eating too much...hahahThe magharita is delicious too, and comes in a mind-boggling variety of fruit flavours.

Its been a good past few days of studying. Casino Royale was fantastic, not so much about the gimmicks and high tech stuff, but more about the plot and the acting which incidentally is very good. Eva Green is gorgeous, all smothering and hot stuff. I have been slacking quite abit too, playing computer games, reading novels. But I have decided I shall just chill for this exam, not point getting stressed out every semester right? Haha, but my intake of tidbits as increased too. There is just this tendency to head to the coop to get snacks after lunch which isn't good for the figure at all.

Right, enough slacking already, back to books before I close shop for the night ;)

Stephen's surprised(or pretending to be surprised face) 

The original cake minus the frosting which already looked dangerously like it was going to break..sigh 

Its time for an update again. So many things have happened since I last updated. Its the end of school and the start of exams next week. I think I should be very worried since I haven't started studying...at all. But I am not..hah. Instead, I don't feel like studying at all. I am so looking forward to the holidays, its going to be my last holiday, so I am not going to work at all, despite my mum's disapproving look.

Anyway, it was Stephen's birthday on friday. I baked a chocolate cake for him on thurs night. The recipe said moist chocolate cake, and it looked pretty simple and foolproof. And it was, I finished everything in half and hour and popped it into the oven. Then I waited for it to be done. And then it struck me that I had used baking powder instead of baking soda which is to react with the buttermlk in the recipe to make it rise. And there I was, cursing and swearing and praying that my cake would turn out alright. 40mins later, a rather flat chocolate cake greeted me. I couldn't wait for it to cool before I cut a small slice to eat. It turned out ok, rather salty and way to flat. I was hoping for a nice, moist and fluffy chocolate cake. Not a brownie like cake. Oh, and the worst thing was, when I was taking the cake out from the pan, it was so tender that it broke, thus I had a broken cake on my hands, and I was way way way distraught. But since it wasnt going to be a birthday cake, but rather for his family as I was having dinner at his place, so I put a nice frosting on the cake and cut it up into small pieces and arranged it in a container.

The next day, I got rave reviews for the cake. Most people liked it because it was very chocolatey, very rich and fudgey. So I heaved a sigh of relief. And thankfully, his family and him liked it too. But then he has always been the greatest supporter for my baking creations..heh.I had thunder tea rice at his place. And it was super delicious, it was so nice that I went for a second helping and ended up being super full.

Today, I cooked lunch for him. It was a super delicious lunch of scrambled eggs and ham,bacon and cheese sandwich. The scrambled eggs were decadent and rich becaus I added cream instead of the normal milk. And I pan-fried the bread till it was brown and crispy. And we had clam-chowder soup too. I think that's about the only things I can cook now..hah..my repertoire is quite limited. But lunch was really great, now I am hooked on grilled cheese sandwich.

And there is a special programme on Monday too, watch Casino Royale and a surprise dinner at a surprise place. Wait for more updates..

I want to go to the Marmalade Pantry soon. After hearing so many good things about it, and reading so blogs raving about it. I wanna go too. If only for their much-talked-about sticky date pudding, or their cupcakes or the sunday brunch. I love things like eggs benedict or scrambled eggs or french toast.. Check out the extensive menu here.

One day...soon..

I had a total rest today, no work at all. Reading books almost the whole day, life never felt so good to just chill out and not worry about deadline. I have been living my life on the edge for as long as I remember. Can't even remember the last time I went out. And I baked the muffins again, this time I used the same recipe but different fillings. For one batch, I put chocolate chips and banana. For the other batch, I put raisins. Both turned out delicious and smelling lovely. This recipe is definitely a keeper, low fat and yummy muffins. The crunchy streusel topping is really addictive.

I went to Cedele to chill out in the afternoon, and I ordered a blueberry crumble muffin. I have been sort of craving for it after mum bought it for breakfast one day. I think its really good. Moist, and yet not too sweet, with the tangy blueberries, and most importantly, generourous heaping of the streusel topping I so love. And it didn't feel oily at all, so I suppose it must be quite healthy. I really love it. I wonder how the exterior can be so nicely browned yet its so soft and moist. The mufins I make are always somewhat anaemic looking because I am so afraid I would over bake it.

Then I saw the carrot cake beckoning out to me, and I couldn't resist ordering that too. I really love it. Moist, studded with walnuts and the delicious cream cheese icing. Now that I have mastered muffins, I think I might move on to carrot cake too. I guess it's an acquired taste. I used to only like to eat chocolate cakes, but somehow nowadays, I eat chocolate, but I tend to eat other kind of cakes.

Ah, it was really bliss. To eat my cake and read a book...

I have finally complete my 2000word essay and my other two assignments over the weekend. After two days of sitting at the desk, trying to get my work now. I just want to do nothing but rest now. So tired..

I have succumbed to temptation and baked again. This time it was muffins, and one of the best batch of muffins I have baked thus far I must say. It was a new recipe, relatively low-fat and very tasty - Cranberry buttermilk muffins. The buttermilk gave it a moist texture and the streusel topping(walnut, butter and sugar) made it delectable and sweet. I can't tell you how many went into my mouth after it came out of the oven, piping hot and yummy.

I feel rather zombie-fied today. Other than baking, I have been stuck at my desk, trying to complete my never-ending load of work. At least one essay down for now and almost finished compilation of a report which is quite a headache, given all the grammatical errors and what nots I have to correct. I finally understand the headaches of editors. My plans to go to the gym were spoilt because I did not finish my essay by my scheduled time and I did not want to spoil the flow. I so did want to get the blood flowing and break out of this lethargy. At least dinner was healthy- a simple chicken macaroni soup, just nice for the weather.

Have to go pick mum up at the airport later


(Teatime: the cinnamon cake I baked yesterday and the muffin amidst all the mess on my table)